Ghost Town
by WingsOfMorphius
Summary: A trip to an old mining town uncovers a secret about Danny’s heritage He’s the heir of a gun toting hero! Now Fast shootin’ Fenton’s fiancée is stirring, and she’ll do anything to get her Daniel back... -Discontinued-
1. Wild West Meets Amity's Best!

**WoM- _Man, have I been sitting on this one for a while or what… I wrote this chapter up forever ago… I mean, Before-I-Lost-My-Email forever ago. Completely forgot about it until I started clearing my folders out. Yes, I know, I shouldn't be starting a new story… but I figured that since it was already written out, I might as well post. Not sure how frequently I'll update it, though…_**

**_Back on topic, WingsOfMorphius still doesn't own anyone but her OCs, and would highly appreciate it if the American Judicial system kept that in mind. That and the fact that she's currently broke as can be…._**

* * *

_(Jazz has just told Jack & Danny that Maddie is going to be in Genius Magazine)_  
**Jack:** _Genius_ Magazine! Is it the swimsuit issue?  
**Jazz:** _(Sighs)_ Dad, _Genius_ Magazine is _for_ women geniuses, _by_ women geniuses, and about _women geniuses_.  
**Danny:** So, it _is_ the swimsuit issue… Oh, _gross! Mom's going to be in the swimsuit issue_?

**Jazz-** **_IT'S NOT THE SWIMSUIT ISSUE!_**

* * *

**Wild West Meets Amity's Best!**

"If she makes one more comment about the sun drying out her hair, I'm gonna fix the problem by shaving her bald." Danny Fenton chuckled nervously at the homicidal look on his best friend's face, fixed pointedly on the pretty Latina girl a few seats ahead of them.

"Easy, Sam." the blue eyed boy coaxed. "This trip is supposed to be fun, remember? A break from all the ghost hunting and fighting. Isn't that what we agreed?"

"I guess…" Sam sighed heavily. Then she smiled wryly. "Though I still think it's ironic that we're going to a ghost town to get away from ghosts."

"Mom already checked the place out weeks ago." Danny rolled his eyes. "It's clean, Sam; Not a ghost in sight. Or even out of sight, for that matter."

"That doesn't mean anything." Sam smirked. "I mean, ghosts can awaken at any time, right? And let's face it, Danny, you're a paranormal magnet." Danny blushed slightly, unable to deny the truth in her statement.

"And who's fault is that?" he countered instead with a pointed look.

"I'm never gonna be able to apologize enough for that to satisfy you, am I?" Sam sulked, raising her eyebrow.

"What do you think?" Danny grinned back.

Almost a year earlier, Sam had convinced Danny to explore a new experiment his parents were working on, unwittingly causing the accident that changed Danny's life forever by endowing him with supernatural ghost powers and the alias of Danny Phantom, Amity Park's most controversial superhero.

Danny had taken up the job of fighting of evil ghosts and the occasional obsessive ghost hunter and human crooks with his newfound abilities, at first in secret but then thrusted into the public eye by one of his enemies.

Most of the adult population of Amity was still getting used to the idea of Danny as a hero, but the children and pretty much every teenager had accepted him readily into the role, idolizing everything about his ghost half while criticizing his human one.

Only five people knew that Danny Fenton and Danny Phantom were one in the same. The first were Danny's two best friends Sam and Tucker, who were both present when Danny's accident took place.

After that was Danny's sister Jazz, who found out on her own and covered for her brother from the shadows until a trip into the future brought out a darker side of Danny that forced her forward to help her brother. Then there was Vlad Masters, Danny's archrival and fellow half ghost and Dani Phantom, Danny's twelve year old female clone.

As he thought about this, Danny ran a hand through his raven locks, which were in dire need of a haircut he didn't have time for. Then again, between school, family, friends and random ghost attacks, the half ghost considered himself lucky if he got time to sleep…

_Well, at least this trip can be a sort of vacation for me, I guess._ Danny thought to himself. _No ghosts for a whole week!_

"Anyways, do you think Tucker's doing okay?" he asked Sam, resting his chin on the back of the seat that separated them.

"With _Valerie_ as his partner?" Sam raised an eyebrow at him. "They'll be sending him back home in an ashtray, Danny."

"Valerie's not that bad." Danny defended his other friend.

Well, friend when he was in his human form, at any rate. Valerie was one of Phantom's most dangerous adversaries, with an arsenal of weapons designed with the sole intent of capturing or destroying ghosts, and the superb physical capabilities only a ninth degree black belt could possess.

"Not to Fenton, maybe." Sam rolled her eyes, knowing all too well what Danny was thinking about. "She was already laying down the 'ground rules' with Tucker when we left. Rules there's no chance he'll ever be able to follow by the way…"

Danny laughed slightly at that, not even bothering to deny that Tucker was less… _ethical_ then most girls were comfortable with. That combined with Valerie's quick temper, impressive combat skills and weapons meant that the fate Sam predicted for the Tech geek was a very likely possibility.

"Still," Danny shook his head, amusement still written on his face. "it was pretty brave of him to volunteer to go to Vlad's castle like that. I mean, he didn't have to."

"But someone did, Danny." Sam pointed out. "You said yourself that it was weird how Vlad suddenly funded a trip like that, and there was no way we were gonna let you within five miles of that psychopath if we could help it."

"Hence the reason Tucker and Jazz went on the field trip to Vlad's and you come along to baby-sit me on the alternate field trip to some barren little western town in the middle of nowhere." Danny finished for her with a pointed look. Sam smiled back guiltily.

"Well, we never used those words exactly." She said, a little meekly. "But that was the general idea."

"You thought I wouldn't notice?" Danny asked, bemused.

"You never notice other things…" Sam muttered dryly.

"What?" Danny asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Nothing!" Sam smiled brightly before turning away, a clear sign that the conversation was over.

She didn't want to get into talking with her friend of nearly ten years about the long time crush she had on him, especially on a bus to the middle of nowhere. If (And this was a BIG if…) she ever said anything to Danny about her more-then-platonic feelings for him, she'd want the setting to be a little more personal then that.

"Okay, kids," Mr. Lancer said as the bus rolled to a stop. "we've reached the mining town now. Please take your things and exit from the bus single file, so we can meet up with the owner and tour guide."

"This better not get my new shoes dirty…" Star griped as she and everyone else exited the bus to the dry earth outside. Sam cringed a little at the heat, shielding her eyes from the glaring sun and moving to stand behind Dash and Kwan to further block the blazing inferno.

"I knew I should've brought my veil…" she grumbled darkly to Danny, who laughed a little at the face she was making.

"Would tanning really be such an awful fate, Sam?" he teased, also blocking the sun with his hand. Squinting off in the distance, he read the ancient sign in front of them. "_Harmony_, huh?"

"Talk about cheesy…" Sam said dryly, rolling her eyes.

"Could be worse." Danny reminded her, sounding bemused. The goth grinned back.

"Ah, yes." she giggled. "How could I forget… _Inviso-Bill_."

Danny glared at her sourly, not improving her sudden giggle fit.

"Attention, please!" Mr. Lancer shouted into a megaphone to silence the teens. "We need you to form two single file lines, one for the boys and one for the girls." Alarmed, Danny and Sam exchanged curious glances at that.

"Why?" Danny asked loudly, frowning at the teacher.

"Well, we can't have you all changing in the same place now, can we?" an older man decked out like a sheriff asked as he came up to stand beside Mr. Lancer looking amused at the reaction. Next to him was a red-headed girl around their age, dressed in a baby blue gown with white undercoats. What drew Danny's attention, though, was the way Sam gasped loudly when she saw them.

"Changing?" Paulina repeated, "Changing into what?"

"Harmony is a full time cosplay joint." the girl replied, crossing her arms and rolling her eyes impatiently as she announced this in a droll tone. "Meaning clothes, cell phones and electronics get checked here and picked up when you leave. Everything here is exactly like it was in the late eighteen hundreds, so no modern tech whatsoever."

"It helps with the learning experience if you undergo first hand what life was like for the people who lived on these lands." the 'sheriff' continued with a warm smile, apparently oblivious to the moaning this new information earned from the kids.

"No cell phones?" Star repeated, looking as if someone had just died right in front of her.

"No video games?" Dash asked, scowling angrily.

"No Abyss Rhodamine Sleeveless Half-Tops?" Paulina wailed, clutching at her face in sheer agony.

"Jeeze…" Danny said, blinking a few times. "Talk about being over dramatic, right Sam?"

"I don't believe it!" Sam gasped, apparently not even hearing Danny as she pushed her way to the front of the crowd.

"…On second thought, never mind."

"Jane?" Sam said, staring at the girl with wide eyed before turning to the man next to her. "Uncle Henry?" The two looked confused for a second before recognition lit in the girl's eyes.

"Sam?" Jane said, sounding faintly surprised. "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing…" Sam said wryly as she shook her head. "You guys never said that this was the town you worked in!"

"You never asked now, didja, Sam?" Henry reminded the girl with a warm laugh as he gave her a one-arm hug.

"Wait," Danny said as he joined his best friend, "You guys know each other?" Realizing what Sam had just said, the ghost boy's eyes widened on the man in the sheriff garb. "UNCLE Henry? You mean—!"

"We're related?" Sam flashed her friend a grin. "Yep. They're not really my cousin and uncle, though, but the whole thing's too complicated, so we just simplify it a little…"

"Who's this?" Jane asked Sam as her eyes flicked over Danny, a slight smile touching her face.

"My friend Danny." Sam answered. "We've known each other since first grade."

"Nice to meet you." Danny said, holding out his hand to shake with Jane. "I'm—!"

"—Not important!" Dash finished for him, shoving the smaller boy out of the way to loom over Jane with a flirty smile. "So, I bet a girl like you really likes the city guys, huh?"

"Dash!" Sam snapped, scowling at the football player.

"Actually," Jane said as if Sam hadn't spoken. "I do like the city guys…" Sam gaped openly at Jane as she stepped forward, putting her gloved hand against Dash's cheek, not noticing the way her gothic cousin's face darkening into an ugly scowl of disgust.

"Oh, I don't _believe_-!" Sam started, but then stopped short as Jane suddenly slapped Dash as hard as she could.

"…But I can't say I'm that fond of the city **_jerks_**." Jane finished before heading over to Danny, who looked faintly surprised at Jane's actions. Henry on the other hand, merely sighed and looked heavenward in exasperation. "You were saying?" Blinking, Danny laughed warmly and ran a hand through his hair before giving Jane a teasing smile.

"Is that how you handle all the quarterbacks you talk to?" He asked.

"Only the ones I really don't like." Jane responded with a secretive smile.

"Jane…" Henry warned, giving his daughter a pointed look, which she beamed broadly at.

"Oh yeah." Danny laughed as he watched the interaction. "You're related to Sam, alright." As Sam looked between her laughing cousin and best friend, she couldn't stop the gnawing jealousy in the pit of her stomach, and found herself stepping forward and clearing her throat.

"So!" She said loudly, grinning widely. "We've gotta change, right?"

"That's right." Henry confirmed, glancing at Sam curiously. "Boys follow me, girls go with Jane. We already have outfits for you guys to pick from in almost every size, so just write down your measurements and give us the papers and we'll give you your outfits. If you don't know them, we've got measuring tape in the changing rooms. Any questions?"

"When do we eat?" Kwan asked.

"We do eat here, right?" Star asked doubtfully, glancing at the desert around them.

"Of course." Henry laughed, "Dinner's in the Saloon at seven. You'll be touring until then. Any more questions? No? In that case, if you'll just follow me…"

Sam watched Danny until he entered the small building the boys were changing in before she followed her cousin to where the girls were supposed to be going. As she passed the sign to enter the town, Sam felt a sharp cold, chill run through her body, like a bad premonition. Shaking it off, she picked up her pace a little more.

_What am I thinking? _She wondered. _It's just nerves… I'm sure everything gonna be okay… I mean, what could happen in a town that miles away from any ghosts…?_

* * *

"Whoa…"

That was the only response Danny could think of as he gaped at himself in the antique full-lengthed mirror in front of him, his boots clunking heavily as he turned this way and that to examine himself.

Ironically enough, the outfit was all black and white. A white shirt buttoned underneath a black vest, coupled with a pair of faded black jeans. A black cowboy hat was hanging over his back by a white cord with black beads since Danny didn't like the feel of it on his head, and black boots without spurs completed the boy's western transformation. Surprisingly, everything fit perfectly, as if it was made for Danny specifically. Even the boots were just the right size for him.

Remembering how Henry had mentioned that these clothes had been worn in the old days by men who lived and worked on building this land, Danny went over to the tag that had been attached to the bag the outfit had been in, which had the measurements and initials of the original owner.

Scanning the tag, Danny found his suspicions confirmed; the measurements of the outfit were exactly the same as his. What really shook him up, though, were the three letters in the initials box.

_DJF_

_Creepy…_ Danny thought, making a face as he released the tag, considering that his full name was Daniel Jonathan Fenton. _Maybe Sam playing some kind of trick on me, trying to spook me out… her family works here, after all. _Danny knew that his two best friends (And Jazz) were the only people in school who knew his full name.

He doubted that, though. Sam wasn't like Tucker, she wouldn't go out of her way to pull elaborate pranks like this…

_Besides, she didn't even know her family worked here until just now._ It was just a coincidence was all, it had to be.

Sighing, Danny left the room, clumsily at first being unused to the weight of his new footwear, but he quickly adapted to the point where someone had to strain to hear his footfall. Shaking off a strange feeling of déjà vu, Danny joined Mr. Lancer and Henry, who both glanced up as Danny entered, their eyes widening in shock.

"Well, kid," Henry laughed, shaking his head. "gotta say, I'm impressed. Most kids your age don't get how to wear this kind of outfit on their first time in them."

"What's so hard about it?" Danny asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Never mind." Henry chuckled. "You're the first one done, though,"

"Goody…" Danny said dryly, crossing his arms. Henry frowned at him for a moment, studying the boy. For some reason, he couldn't shake the feeling that he'd seen him somewhere before…

_He must've been there last time I went to visit Pamela._ Henry decided, turning away to finish putting away the possessions the teens had brought with them.

"Now Danny." he heard Mr. Lancer lecture the boy with a rather severe frown. "I trust there won't be any more of your famous 'accidents' during this trip? Most of these artifacts date back as far as the late 1800s, and almost all of them are irreplaceable historical artifacts."

"Accidents?" Henry repeated when he turned back to the two, raising an eyebrow skeptically at the now blushing boy.

"That's right." Mr. Lancer said dryly, giving Danny a pointed glare. "Danny here is quite accident-prone. He's committed every crime in the book from defacing school property to false fire alarms." Danny blushed vividly at the subtle accusation, shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot as he studied the toes of his cowboy boots. Feeling a little sorry for the boy, Henry cleared his throat loudly.

"Well, everything here is fully insured." he said to the teacher. "We've had plenty of kids break stuff before, so we're used to making repairs."

"Be that as it may, Mr. Viper," Mr. Lancer sighed. "it's a fate I'd much rather avoid." Shaking his head, Henry chucked before his eyes widened slightly.

"Oh, I almost forgot!" He said, turning back to Danny and grabbing a spare hat that was sitting upside down on the counter. Holding it out to the boy, he grinned as her answered his questioning look. "It gives you a job to do while you're in Harmony. There's at least two people for each job, and your job determines who your roommate is. It's completely luck of the draw, so no complaints and no trading. Get it?"

"Got it." Danny sighed, reaching into the hat. Taking a slip, he withdrew it and opened it, blinking at his 'job.' "Gunslinger?"

"Really?" Henry said, raising an eyebrow as he took the slip himself to read it. "Well, that's interesting. There's only two gunslingers in town at a time, and I've never had the first kid out draw one…"

"You're not really going to give my students weapons, are you?" Mr. Lancer asked with a disapproving frown. "Mr. Viper-!"

"Relax, Lancer." Henry laughed warmly. "They're fake guns with fake bullets that have blood pellets in the tips. Other then that though, they're complete replicas of the guns used in the 1800s, meaning that they're more inaccurate then guns today, so the chances of the kids actually hitting each other with 'em are pretty slim."

Opening a box under the counter, Henry dug around a bit to look for something in Danny's size before he withdrew a black leather holster with a silver oval shaped buckle, handing it to the teen.

Studying the design on the buckle, Danny's eyes widened slightly when he saw the initials DF carved into the center, flipping the tag to read the initials DJF yet again. The boy made a face.

_Figures._ He thought dryly as he studied the buckle again. His eyes narrowed slightly when he noticed that the 'F' on the belt was stylized the exact same way his father, grandfather and great-grandfather on his dad's side of the family had designed the Fenton logo. _Okay, now it's just getting creepy…_

**_"AHHH!"_** Danny jumped slightly and turned at the loud scream that drew him from his thoughts.

"Who was that?" Mr. Lancer asked, alarmed.

"Mikey." Danny answered automatically.

_It's a little sad that I've had to save my classmates so many times, I can tell who's who by their screams alone…_ Danny mused to himself.

**_"SNAAAAAAKE!"_** Mikey wailed loudly, followed by loud crashing noises. Sighing loudly, Henry started towards the room the boy was dressing in.

"I'd better take care of this…" he said wryly. Danny shook his head incredulously as he watched the man go, one thought running through his mind…

_

* * *

_

"You've gotta be kidding me!"

Jane giggled slightly at the horrified look on her cousin's face as she looked at herself in the mirror, dressed in full petticoats and frills.

"Come on, Sam." she teased. "You don't look half bad in a good, old-fashion Victorian gown." Sam glowered at the girl sullenly.

"Oh shut up." she growled, turning back to her reflection with a sigh.

_Well, at least it's black… _she thought grimly, pulling at the high collar of the dress that her parents would kill to get her into (In a brighter color, at any rate) for more then an hour.

"So Sam." Jane said casually. "That friend of yours, Danny? Does he have a girlfriend?"

Sam hands stopped for a second and she glanced at her cousin's reflection in the mirror.

"No." she answered honestly. "Why?"

"No reason." Jane said quickly. "It's just… well, he's kinda cute and all…" Sam frowned a little, unsure of how to respond to that. She liked Jane, she really did. But Danny…

"Actually." Sam found herself blurting out. "Danny and I have been considering going steady recently." The goth cringed as soon as the words left her mouth.

_StupidstupidstupidstupidstupidSTUPID!_ she scolded herself soundly, wishing she could take those words back. _Where's Desiree when you actually NEED her?_

"Really?" Jane asked, looking faintly surprised and disappointed at the same time. "Oh, well… Congratulations, I guess. You two will look cute together."

"Thanks." Sam said, feeling guilty for lying to her cousin. Though technically, it wasn't a lie. She at least wanted to go steady with Danny… Heck anything resembling a _date_ would've had the girl over the moon in joy, but Danny had his eyes on other girls.

_Isn't that life?_ she thought wryly. Brushing the thought away, the girl turned back to Jane as the redhead handed her a slip of paper. Taking it, Sam raised an eyebrow at the writing on it.

"Banker's daughter?" she read off, giving her cousin a skeptical look. Jane grinned back.

"It's pretty much the cushy position." the girl explained. "You don't really have to do anything but sit around when there's a ribbon cutting ceremony and look good. As far as the dress goes, you can say you're mourning your brother's death or something." Her grin taking on a more devious edge, the girl added, "Just don't tell my dad I gave that to you, okay? We're supposed to let you pick your jobs randomly." Sam grinned back at her knowingly.

"You have my vow of silence, cuz!" she laughed, high-fiving her cousin as Paulina exited her room wearing a frilly pink and white gown, Star at her heels in a very similar dress, only in green.

"Like this dress is so the wrong shade for me!" Paulina complained loudly, smoothing out the skirt of her dress. Sam snorted disdainfully and Jane short her a wry grin.

"Well," The redhead sighed dramatically. "duty calls!" Sam chuckled and waved her cousin off as the girl approached her classmates with a brown ten gallon hat filled with slips of paper like the one she'd given Sam. Shaking her head, Sam turned to look out the window as Jane explained things to the two girls, looking back only at Paulina's shrill scream of pure rage…

**_"What do you mean I'm the Goth Freak's servant?"_**

* * *

"Sam?" Danny approached his best friend warily, unsure if he liked the evil grin the goth had on her face. "Please don't tell me they were dumb enough to stick you as the town executioner or some equally gory job…" Sam rolled her eyes at that, hitting Danny playfully across the shoulder.

"Haha." She grouched dryly, her grin growing slightly. "And no, that's not what I'm happy about… though now that you mention it, that would be a really cool job…"

"Oh?" Before Danny could say any more then that, though, a very irritated Paulina stormed over, glowering at Sam hatefully.

"Let's get one thing straight, loser!" She spat out at the goth, "If you even think about taking advantage of this whole servant thing, I'll make the rest of your pitiful high school existence the worst four years of your life!"

"Too late." Sam said dryly. Paulina merely scoffed and walked away, flipping her hair as she went. Danny stared at her retreating form for a minute in shock before he turned back to Sam.

"Do I even want to know?" he asked, only half serious with the question.

"I'll tell you later." The goth responded flippantly. "Come on, we've gotta get into the inn to start the tour of the town. Danny laughed as Sam dragged him into the old building, her skirts lifted so she could walk a little easier.

"Wow, Sam," the ghost boy teased lightly. "you're really getting into this stuff!" Sam laughed and shot her friend a playful grin.

"Yeah, well— OOF!" grunting in pain, Sam twisted around to glare back at the scowling boy she'd bumped in to.

"Watch it!" Dash barked at her, his blue eyes flashing angrily.

"Lay off, Dash." Danny frowned at the larger boy, tensing in preparation to defend his friend. "It was an accident." Dash turned to sneer right back at Danny, clearly not ready to forgive him for the embarrassment Jane had caused him just yet.

"Yeah, yeah…" the quarterback snapped. "And watch your back, Fenton! You get in my way again, and I'll show you what a real gunslinger is made of!" Danny blinked as the blonde stormed out of sight, turning to Sam with a bewildered look on his face.

"How would he know?" The half ghost asked Sam, sounding confused and a little wary. Sam just rolled her eyes in amusement.

"Ah, forget him." She said, turning back to Danny. "Let's just… just…" Danny frowned in concern as his friend paled to a shade that was whiter then half the ghost's he'd met.

"Sam?" He said, putting his hand on the girl's shoulder to steady her since she looked ready to faint (Something she'd deny vigorously later.)

"What's with her?" Paulina sneered, drawing everyone's attention to the pair. Concerned, Danny looked over to see what had captured his friend's attention.

And went deathly still when he realized what it was.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, he heard someone gasp as the rest of the class realized what the two of them were staring at, but he was too shell-shocked to fully acknowledge it, his eyes fixed on the framed black and white picture on the wall.

"Ohmigosh…!" Star whispered, looking from the photo to Danny and back again. "That's… Fenton, that's…" Since the popular girl was speechless for once in her life, it was up to Sam to finish her statement for her.

"Danny…" Sam croaked out in a stunned tone. "that's _you_." Danny didn't respond except to blinked in shock a few time before tearing his eyes off a face that was the mirror image of his own to glance at the nameplate below the picture, his face going even paler when her saw it.

_Daniel 'Fast-Shootin'' Fenton_

* * *

**WoM- _I already know I'm gonna get yelled at by some of you people for posting this with all my other stories still unfinished and such… But I couldn't help myself_ ;**


	2. Fast Shootin Fenton

**WoM- _Wow, people really seemed interested in this one… 'giggles evilly' Sorry for taking so long with the update! The next one shouldn't take as long, if my computer behaves for once in its miserable existence…_**

* * *

**Walker:** I am your judge, executioner, jury, executioner, jailer, and if necessary your executioner.  
**Danny:** You said executioner three times.  
**Walker:** I like that part of the job.

* * *

**Fast-Shootin' Fenton!**

"Please tell me this is someone's idea of a joke." Even as he looked around at his wide-eyed classmates, Danny knew the hope was futile. Unnerved, he turned back to the wall, studying the picture again.

Taking a closer look, he noticed that the boy in the photograph looked a little older then he was, maybe sixteen or seventeen. Other then that though, the resemblance was uncanny right down to the wide, easy grin on Daniel's face.

"I don't…" Sam said, looking between the picture and her best friend. "It's doesn't… How could… _Why_?"

_Why indeed._ Danny said wryly in his head, running a hand through his hair. Suddenly his nice, relaxing break for his chaotic life was going straight down the tubes…

"There you guys are!" trotting over, Jane stopped in front of the group, her eyebrow raising when she realized that everyone's attention was elsewhere. Turning, she gasped when she saw what the teens were staring at.

"Oh, wow…" She said, blinking as she looked between the picture and Danny. "I thought I knew you from somewhere… Guess I just didn't make the connection before because you were dressed differently…"

"Fast-Shootin' Fenton?" Sam read, shooting Jane a curious look.

"He was a gunslinger raised here in Harmony." Jane explained. "And he was good, too. Almost scary, what he could do with a gun… There's one story about this contest he and Buck— they were friends back then— got into when they were thirteen to see who the better shot was. Daniel won when he managed to hit a thimble in mid air from eighty paces away."

"If he was so good, why'd he stay in this dump." Dash sneered, shooting Danny a pointed look.

"He didn't." Jane said. "Daniel disappeared right after the death of his fiancée."

"Come on, Jane." Henry chuckled as he joined the conversation, making a few kids jump. "You're getting ahead of yourself. That's no way to tell the tale of Fast Shootin' Fenton." Beside him, Mr. Lancer looked alarmed at that statement.

"I beg your pardon?" He said, looking over at Danny accusingly.

"I didn't do anything!" Danny defended himself immediately, a little irritated. Henry frowned between the two, apparently not making the connection right away. After a moment or two, though, he finally noticed the resemblance between the man in the black and white photo and the teen in front of him.

"Well I'll be…" He said with a low whistle. "I thought you looked familiar…"

"You never told me you had a famous relative, Danny." Sam said, her tone borderline accusing.

"I didn't know!" Danny defended himself at once. "Dad never said a word about it…"

_Which is weird, because normally it's hard to get him to shut up about stuff like this._ Danny finished in his head. Frowning, he studied the man in the picture again, trying to shake off how unnerving it felt to look at a man who was so similar to him in appearance.

"Well, Fast-shootin' Fenton was a very mysterious character." Henry said, scratching his chin thoughtfully. "Very little is known about him… when he was born, who his parents were… Heck, for a long time no one even knew it was him fightin' off the bandits and train robbers coming through Harmony. People just called him the Phantom Slinger…"

Henry paused here when Sam was suddenly overcome with a violent coughing fit, glancing at her in wary concern until she'd recovered. Danny, in the meantime, was white as a sheet, looking more then a little shaken.

_It's just a coincidence…_ He reassured himself hastily, swallowing against a lump in his throat. _I mean, Phantom's a really common nickname, it's not like I have it trademarked or anything…_ Though Tucker was definitely working on that.

"Anyways." Henry continued after Sam had reassured everyone she was fine. "Fenton wasn't what you'd call popular growing up, and only had two known friends. One was Buck Jones, who would grow up to be Black-eye Buck, and the other was The daughter of the Saloon manager, and an ancestor of my and Jane's— and Sammy here, for that matter— Gwendolyn Viper. Those two were the only ones he confided with his secret double life."

Here, Henry pointed to a second picture hanging on the wall, of Daniel Fenton and two other people, all in their early teens. One was a larger boy, built very burly with a sun worn face and a wide grin. He was dressed simply, obviously a farmer or something of the sorts, and had a fishing pole in his hands. The other was a girl, her long black hair pulled back in a low ponytail, save for the strands framing her face. Freckles spotted her tanned face, and she smiled into the camera with a confidence that belied her simple, dusty dress.

More frightening, though, was the fact that only a few details kept the girl from looking nearly identical to Sam, who drew in a sharp breath when she saw this.

"Danny…" the goth hissed, casting the boy a worried look.

"It's just a coincidence!" Danny insisted under his breath curtly, giving her a look that dared her to challenge that statement. Sam rolled her eyes, but let the subject drop.

"When Fenton was in his late teens, he was exposed as the Phantom Shooter and forced into the media spotlight. Things got really nasty after that, and Fenton even considered skipping town and starting over somewhere else, but then the Gold Family moved into town in May of 1881."

Danny grimaced when Henry motioned to yet another picture before glancing at it warily. Luckily, none of the people in it resembled anyone he knew. Still, his eyes were immediately drawn to the girl in the picture, who was a little older then him.

She looked delicate and refined, a true model of what a girl was supposed to be in that era, dainty and polite. An expensive-looking dress (Much like the one Sam was currently wearing) adorned her, and her fair colored hair (Danny couldn't tell for sure, but guess she was a redhead.) curled loosely around her face, framing it perfectly.

"Pretty." Danny observed, earning a grin from Henry.

"Fenton thought so too, apparently." He confided to the group. "That's Lunette Gold, Lord Richard Gold's sole child and heiress to the Gold family fortune. When she and Fenton met, they were immediately drawn to one another, and it wasn't long before they fell in love. Finally, in October of 1889, the two announced their official engagement."

"I'm guessing they didn't live happily ever after…" Danny said, remembering Jane's earlier comment.

"You guess right." Henry said with a grim smile. "You see, Fenton and Buck got into a big fight not long after Lunette's arrival. We're still not completely sure what it was about, but the two childhood friends became bitter enemies from that day on. So when Buck heard about Lunette and Fenton getting hitched, he just about snapped. Apparently, he kidnapped Lunette and killed her in cold blood, hiding her body where no one could find it. Fenton went ballistic when he heard, and ended up confronting Buck about it. It turned into a gunfight, and Buck was shot dead in the streets. After that, Fenton disappeared, and no one's seen or heard anything of him since." People shot Danny curious looks here, and the blue eyed boy blushed at being put on the spot.

"I've never heard anything about any of this before." He said apologetically. "I mean, Dad's told me millions of stories about my grandfather and great-grandfather, but he's never said a word about a Fast-shootin' Fenton…"

"I'm sure it's all just a coincidence." Sam intervened. "Anyways, we should probably get started with that tour now, right?"

"I guess…" Jane said, shooting her cousin a curious look. "Alright then, if you'll all follow me…" Danny paid no heed to his classmates as they followed Jane and Henry out of the room, his eyes fixed on the face of his supposed ancestor with a small frown tugging at his lips.

_Events shall go full circle until the end is rectified…_

"Danny?" Jumping, Danny wheeled around to meet concerned violet eyes. Grimacing, Danny dismissed the strange words and sighed before he turned his attention to the unasked question in Sam's worried glance.

"I'm fine." He assured her with a forced smile. "Come on, we'd better catch up with the group." Looking a little troubled, Sam followed her friend as he started towards the rest of their class.

_Fine my butt._ She scoffed in her head. Sighing, she silently wished that Danny would just drop his pride every once in a while and admit when he was worried about something… _I'll talk to him later, when he's not so defensive. Maybe then he'll tell me what's wrong._ Satisfied with this decision, Sam pretended to concentrate on the artifacts around her as her cousin rambled on about them, not taking in a word of it.

Danny, in the meantime, was trying to shake off the feeling of eyes on the back of his neck.

_Get a hold of yourself, Fenton. _He scolded mentally. _Who would be spying on you anyways? Your miles away from any ghosts…_ smiling slightly, Danny shook his groundless worries away, determined to enjoy every minute of this rare break he'd been offered…

* * *

"Do we really have to do this?"

Henry chuckled a little at Danny's question, taking in the boy's pasty complexion and sudden case of the shakes. Grinning, the man clasped Danny's shoulder, making the smaller boy buckle at the knees.

"Relax kid." He reassured him. "It's like I told Lancer earlier, these guns and bullets are fake. You don't have anything to worry about, trust me. Just remember to wait for the bell, and hope you hit." Somehow, Danny found that difficult to do with Dash grinning down at him in the same predatory fashion of a cat who had just cornered a wounded mouse.

After a long winded tour about the Old West, followed by a quick dinner (which was mildly entertaining in Sam's tirade against the lack of vegetarian entrees.) Henry had suggested they wrap the evening up with a standoff between the two elected gunslingers before they hit the hay for the night, which the class was more then eager to see.

Which had led to Danny and Dash standing twenty paces from one another in the middle of town, the rest of the class hovering in the nearby buildings.

Danny's heart hammered as he swallowed to keep the pork and beans he'd just gotten done eating from coming back up, one hand clutching his firearm nervously as he tugged at his collar with the other, wondering blankly why it was so hard to breathe.

_It's not like I haven't had a gun pointed at me before._ He reminded himself. _And those were guns that could actually hurt me, too. _Still, those were ecto-guns, and he was in his ghost form. Not facing down one of the nastiest bullies in his school as geeky, clumsy Danny Fenton. Who, by the way, was a fan of Phantom, despite making a sport out of giving wedgies to Fenton.

Theses were the times when Danny really hated his life…

Before Danny could mull this over any further, a bell sounded to begin the match, and Dash wasted no time drawing his gun and taking a shot at Danny. Acting on instincts of one who has spent a year of being shot at by friends, parents and assorted ghost hunters, Danny dodged to the left before he realized that Dash's aim had been off anyways.

Dash shot again, but Danny kept moving around sporadically to make himself an even more difficult target, yet another trick being hunted had taught him. Still, most of the spectators didn't see it as anything more then geeky Danny Fenton running around like a total coward. A few students even started snickering amongst themselves at how ridiculous the boy looked.

Only Henry, who'd seen these kinds of fights a million times over, realized that Danny's movements were too purposeful for him to be panicking.

"Your friend is one weird kid…" Henry muttered to Sam softly as he watched Danny, not seeing his niece's flinch. "Has he ever done anything like this before?"

"Come on, Uncle Henry." She said, faking a laugh. "How many high school kids spend their spare time getting shot at?" Henry frown at this, but didn't respond, and his attention was drawn back to the streets below when Dash decided to taunt Danny verbally.

"What's the matter, Fenton?" The jock sneered, obviously getting his kicks out of the situation. "too scared to do anything but run around like a loser?" Danny stiffened at the word 'loser,' his hand going for his gun before he even had time to stop and think about it.

He drew the weapon and took fire in one quick, fluid movement, and the next thing anyone knew Dash had fallen to a sitting position in the dirt, a vivid red mark in his abdomen and a stunned look on his face. And with the exception of a smirking Sam, the rest of the class seemed just as shocked as he did.

"Looks like you're the loser this time, Dash." Danny snapped, glaring at the boy before turning and starting away. Hitching up her skirts, Sam ran to catch up with him.

"That was awesome!" She said gleefully when she was matching Danny's strides. "Jeeze Danny, why didn't you tell me quick draw was genetic?" Any further teasing remarks disappeared when Sam took in the look on Danny's face. "Hey, are you okay?"

"Fine." He sighed, not wanting to talk about how much Dash's remark had upset him. Sam seemed to accept this, however reluctantly.

"Well, now that the match is over I guess it's time for bed." She reminded the boy, making a face. "Meaning I've got to put up with Paulina as my roommate until morning. That's sure to be fun…" Danny's sour mood disappeared at the thought of the entertainment Sam's living arrangements would bring for him.

"Oh come on, Sam." He laughed. "It probably won't be that bad…" Sam scowled at him before she smile mischievously.

"Well…" She sang out. "I guess it won't be as bad as you and your roomie." Danny blinked at that, looking confused before glaring at her warily.

"What about my roommate?" He asked suspiciously.

"Didn't you hear?" Sam asked innocently. "You and Dash are sharing a room. And considering how mad he probably is at you right now, it's a good thing this whole ghost mess made you a light sleeper." Danny groaned to himself as Sam pranced ahead to join up with the group as they headed to the inn (Not skipped, though. Goths never skipped, after all.)

_Why me…?_ Danny wondered woefully as he reluctantly headed in for the night. This vacation was starting to look bleaker and bleaker by the minute…

* * *

She sighed in irritation as these new invaders continued decimating her town, disturbing her chances for a peaceful afterlife. Her lips thinning, the girl glared out the window of her room sourly at the group below before her eyes were drawn to a boy straggling behind the others and she gasped loudly.

_It can't be…_ She thought, rising to her feet and pressing a semi-transparent porcelain-colored hand against the glass_. It's impossible… it's been over a hundred years…_

But there he was, clear as day walking along in the same easy stride she remembered so well, identical to the man she'd loved so long ago…

"…Daniel…?"

* * *

**WoM- _That's all for now:D Now if you'll excuse me, I've gotta finish up the next chapter of AS! Then I've got Gender Confusion to worry about… At any rate, stay tuned for the next chapter, kay?_**

**Thanks to-**

Light Dragon SunsSong, Splout, Jimmy the Gothic Egg, Esme Kali Phantom, Evillittlegurlie, Crazy Billie Joe Loving Freak, The Person Who Rights, Lumias, ghostgirl14027, X-Roosterrelli-X, KelseyAlicia, Epona Harper, Horselvr4evr123, brittney, The Labyrinths Scribe, ghostlover15, Ytak, dfd, BarnOwl93, Firefury, Majestic Moon, katiesparks, Siren of Time, ShiroAndFubuki, Sasia, Anomaly25, KILLERGRIM23, 1800's style curtains, Boongdaba, ur1crazedupfruitloop, liz, Lieutenant Laqua Quacker Queen, Phantom of a Rose, Tazzel Quickbow, Soultail Omega-Light, Straying Life, ImMoRtAl-FoOl, jessicajason, conan98002, Warrior of winds, kawaii chibi shun, midnightpyro, Giff, Invader Johnny, unlovedepacifist, Black January, Blaidd Drwg, Zuzanny, chaotic.calm, SilverstarsEbonyskies, Half-elf, JosephineInLove, Shades-of-Pink, emotigone crazy, Sparky the Wonder Weasel, ghostreader, Redwind, DPWolf, BugzAttack, Dphomegurl, Phantom of a Rose, Rob Phantom, glossy3, phantomshadowdragon, Mayday5, Tearsofblood, BratCat, The Unknown Alias, RedLion2, Baka Hanyou Rahvin, radian, Twisted Creampuff, Anonymous Reader, The world has finally ended, Linariel, kennyk12, StarsOfTwilight


	3. AUTHOR'S NOTE! PLEASE READ!

Hey everybody, Wings here

Hey everybody, Wings here! As I'm sure you guys have noticed by now, I haven't updated for a long, looooong time, and I apologize deeply for that. My real life has gotten so hectic lately, and I've lost inspiration for a lot of my stories, so I haven't had the time or means to work on most of them.

But, as some of you have apparently already noticed, Jessica01 has volunteered to take this story off of my hands and finish it up. Since I know most of you would rather see this story finished by someone else then remaining uncompleted until when and if I find the time to finish them, I agreed to sign the rights for Ghost Town over to her. Be sure to check her out for any more updates for this story!

Also, could the people who've been harassing her about it being my story apologize properly? I know you guys were looking out for my best interest, and I appreciate that, but I really did give her permission to complete it, so she didn't do anything wrong. If anyone is to blame, it's me for being so busy with my homework that I couldn't make the official announcement until now. I tell you people, college is no joke…


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